Who is Don Berwick?

“Any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is by definition redistributional.”

Donald Berwick is currently the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the largest health insurance program in the United States.

Before being recess appointed by President Barack Obama as the head of CMS, Berwick was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), a non-profit based in Cambridge, Massachusetts which Berwick founded in 1991 following a career as a pediatrician and an academic.

Yet rather than hold Senate hearings where Berwick could respond to his own remarks and attempt to assuage concerns, President Obama chose to bypass the nomination process before Berwick had even been fully vetted. Concerns remain regarding both Berwick’s funding sources at IHI, potential conflicts of interest, and his unwillingness to respond to questions from reporters and any news sources that might be unfriendly to his controversial views.